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Arsenal handed major boost in pursuit of £50m Premier League star

By on August 8, 2017

According to the Metro, Arsenal have been handed a major boost in their pursuit of Riyad Mahrez after Roma pulled out of the race to sign the £50m-rated Leicester City attacker.

Mahrez has been strongly linked with a move to the Emirates once again this summer after handing in a written transfer request at the King Power Stadium towards the start of the transfer window.

Arsene Wenger has confirmed he’s in the market for more reinforcements after signing just two new players so far and a new attacker is believed to be a priority for the boss.

Thomas Lemar is widely reported to be our key target but Monaco are proving extremely difficult to deal with and the Metro suggests Mahrez is Wenger’s back-up option in-case we can’t land the French international.

Roma have been pushing hard to sign Mahrez in recent weeks with the newspaper saying they had a £31.7m bid rejected by Leicester as the Foxes are holding out for nearer £50m.

We’ve been waiting for the Serie A club to come back in with an improved offer but Roma sporting director Monchi has confirmed the club are now moving on to other targets after giving up on a deal to sign the Algerial international.

Monchi is quoted as saying by the Metro:

‘I’m optimistic by nature, but the truth is that Roma did everything possible to buy the player,’

‘He would have been the most expensive player in Roma’s history. But up until now we haven’t received any positive feedback from the other side.

‘The offer we made was an important one, but the priority isn’t just Mahrez because we’ve done everything necessary and now we’re looking around for other players.’

With Roma now seemingly out of the running, Arsenal have a much clearer path to land Mahrez if Wenger decides to turn his attention to signing the Leicester attacker.

READ: Wenger blocks move to sign £18m midfielder

Obviously Lemar is a huge talent and I’d love to see him join Arsenal but if Monaco continue to play hardball then we might be better off just concentrating our efforts on doing a deal for Mahrez.

The 26-year-old is more experienced and has played in the Premier League so he won’t need any time to settle here in England – plus he’d be a sensational signing if we could get him back playing like he did during the 2015/16 campaign.